Andrew Moloney sees a brighter future and room for a altering of the guard.
The previous secondary WBA junior bantamweight titlist landed again within the win column with a ten-round shutout of Judy Flores earlier this month within the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park, Australia. The win got here practically seven months after a crushing twelfth spherical knockout loss to Junto Nakatani of their WBO 115-pound title combat this previous Could in Las Vegas.
Moloney hoped to hitch twin brother Jason Moloney, who gained the WBO bantamweight title one week earlier in a Could 13 victory over Vincent Astrolabio. The brand new hope, now, is for each to rule their respective divisions within the yr forward.
“There appears to be a whole lot of motion on the high of the tremendous flyweight division,” Moloney informed BoxingScene.com. “I’ve heard that Nakatani, Chocolatito [former four-division champ Roman Gonzalez] and [lineal/WBC champion Juan Francisco] Estrada may all quickly transfer as much as 118.
“It’s time for a brand new king of the tremendous flyweight division and I plan on that being me.”
Moloney (26-3, 16KOs) managed a productive four-fight win streak after his winless trilogy with San Antonio’s Joshua Franco. A dominant ten-round, unanimous determination over Norbelto Jimenez final October noticed him advance to the highest of the WBO rankings. It put him in place to combat for the belt when Kazuto Ioka was compelled to relinquish for failure to defend versus Nakatani as his necessary challenger.
Nakatani has since confirmed his determination to maneuver as much as bantamweight, the place he’ll problem WBC titlist Alexandro Santiago on February 24 on the famed Kokugikan Area in Tokyo.
Kosei Tanaka (19-1, 11KOs) and Christian Bacasegua (22-4-2, 9KOs) will compete for the 115-pound title left behind by Nakatani. Moloney and Gonzalez are the following highest ranked contenders. ‘Chocolatito’ stays with no clear subsequent step, whereas Moloney is way extra motivated to make his technique to the highest of the mountain.
“I all the time keep prepared so I’ll be prepared to leap at any alternative early within the new yr,” said Moloney. “Hopefully that may both be an eliminator or a shot at one of many world titles.”
Jake Donovan is a senior author for BoxingScene.com. X (previously Twitter): @JakeNDaBox
